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T. S. Kemp

Mammals: A Very Short Introduction explores the nature, evolutionary history, and modern diversity of mammals. From a little shrew-like, nocturnal, insect-eating ancestor ...
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Mammals: A Very Short Introduction explores the nature, evolutionary history, and modern diversity of mammals. From a little shrew-like, nocturnal, insect-eating ancestor living 200 million years ago (mya), mammals have evolved into a huge variety of different kinds of animals. This VSI explains how it is endothermy—‘warm-bloodedness’—enabling high levels of activity and the relatively large brain associated with complex, adaptable behaviour that epitomizes mammals. It describes their remarkable fossil record, revealing how and when the mammals gained their characteristics, and the tortuous course of their evolution. It reveals the adaptations mammals evolved to suit their varied modes of life, including those of mainly arboreal primates culminating in Homo sapiens.Less